A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.

The confidence of Colorado business leaders continues to be positive heading into the fourth quarter and has moderately increased compared with a year ago, according to the most recent Leeds Business Confidence Index (LBCI) released today by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

It’s not as bullish, however, as it was a quarter ago with slight drops across the board resulting in a current overall reading of 59.5, down from 61.2 heading into the third quarter of 2014.

“I wouldn’t put too much concern in a slight dip in the numbers,” said economist Richard Wobbekind, executive director of the Leeds School’s Business Research Division, which conducts the LBCI. “Last year and this year, we’re growing at the fastest rate in terms of employment growth that we’ve seen since the year 2000, so we’re really on a very, very strong growth rate for jobs year over year.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Floridians’ consumer sentiment this month reached its highest level since before the Great Recession began and after it ended, according to a monthly University of Florida survey. The index inched up one point from August to 83 -- a level not seen since April 2007.

“This is a welcome development given that consumer sentiment has been flat for the last few months,” said Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Survey Research Center in the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “While we are still about 10 points behind where we would like to be at this point in a recovery, confidence among Floridians is heading in the right direction.”

The small rise, which parallels an uptick in confidence nationwide, was broad-based among all ages and income levels. Of the five components that comprise the survey, two rose, two declined and one remained unchanged.

Yes, I'm in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood right now. I also know that these aren't business as usual times. I hope posting the above gets the unwarrented optimism out of my system.